Sunday, 24 October 2010

Turkish crime - Turkish politics

This month a team of Hackney police officers returned home from a trip to Turkey. The trip was to "learn more about the culture, to strengthen existing relationships with Hackney's Turkish and Kurdish communities."

In 2007 BBC Radio Four's File on Four transcript March 2007: "Drugs" which investigated the how Baybasin (leader of Bombacilar) had a deal with HM Customs which ran him as an informer.

The BBC investigation mentions another character, Nurretin Guven. He, and another convicted drug dealer, Hamit Gokenc, were both allegedly linked to a right-wing nationalist group and to attempts to capture or assassinate PKK and MLPK leaders. (Most of these links were taken from this article: Turkish Conflicts: PKK, Grey Wolves. I don't know if the claims made in it are correct.)

The BBC's 2006 story about a clampdown on the notorious Bombacilar said: "Matters came to a head on 9 November 2002 when the Bombacilar clashed with their PKK/Kadek rivals" which led to a street battle along Green Lanes and the death of one man. The PKK being the far-left Kurdish nationalist party and listed as terrorist organisation in the USA and Europe.

The violence errupted again in 2009 with several tit-for-tat shootings but this time the Bombacillar were believed to be in conflict with the Tottenham Boys. According to the Evening Standard both gangs are Turkish Kurds.

Blood and Property spoke to a Turkey expert from a well-known London-based institution who did not want to be named. He said that Turkish communities, like those in Hackney and Haringey, were more polarised than Turkish/Kurdish communities in Turkey itself. He also said that events, like a recent PKK terrorist attack in Istanbul, could result in increased tensions in communities like those in North London.

"Since the enactment of the 2001 Terrorism Act in the UK, the PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Kurds from Turkey who claim asylum in the UK stating persecution due to membership of, or association with, the PKK could risk imprisonment under the Terrorism Act. At the same time (2000) the Kurdish television station MED-TV, which was broadcast from the UK, was closed down by the British government due to breaches of impartiality and claims that it incited people to commit criminal acts. These events highlight how diaspora politics and the struggle for Kurdish national recognition have the potential to escalate into a sensitive political issue between the UK and Turkey."

But then the same research suggests it's more to do with integrating into life in a Western city:
According to academic research:

In policy terms, the absence of youth centres, and hence of activities for young immigrant
origin people to engage in, is seen as one reason behind the growth of Turkish and Kurdish gangs. These gangs are usually ethnically differentiated, although some mixing occurs too, according to our key informants. Identity is seen as a central issue:

If they don’t belong to an identity, they tend to do a lot of criminal, anti-social behaviour. They form mafia street-gangs. Fighting and anti-social behaviour is becoming a problem (community centre representative). Whether the problem of youth crime lies in issues of identity, or lack thereof, is a moot point. What is less contentious is the strong correlation between poverty and alienation."

This is why their community organisations insist that using the term ‘Turkish-speaking community’ is not neutral: it implies that ‘Turkish Kurds’ somehow ‘belong’ to Turkey, and that their separate Kurdish identity does not merit recognition. Their claims as a people and nation are at times found to be at odds with anti-terrorist legislation in the UK and with the UK’s position in favour of Turkey joining the EU.10

9 In practice, the centres which call themselves ‘Turkish and Kurdish community centres’ are either Turkish- or Kurdish-dominated, with a very small minority of Turkish Cypriots involved.

10 Since the enactment of the 2001 Terrorism Act in the UK, the PKK has been listed as a terrorist organisation by the UK government. Kurds from Turkey who claim asylum in the UK stating persecution due to membership of, or association with, the PKK could risk imprisonment under the Terrorism Act. At the same time (2000) the Kurdish television station MED-TV, which was broadcast from the UK, was closed down by the British government due to breaches of impartiality and claims that it incited people to commit criminal acts. These events highlight how diaspora politics and the struggle for Kurdish national recognition have the potential to escalate into a sensitive political issue between the UK and Turkey.

In policy terms, the absence of youth centres, and hence of activities for young immigrant origin people to engage in, is seen as one reason behind the growth of Turkish and Kurdish gangs. These gangs are usually ethnically differentiated, although some mixing occurs too, according to our key informants. Identity is seen as a central issue:

If they don’t belong to an identity, they tend to do a lot of criminal, anti-social behaviour. They form mafia street-gangs. Fighting and anti-social behaviour is becoming a problem (community centre representative). Whether the problem of youth crime lies in issues of identity, or lack thereof, is a moot point. What is less contentious is the strong correlation between poverty and alienation.

"There is clearly an ethnic enclave present, consisting not just of sandwich and kebab shops but many other family businesses that provide extensive services and, in many ways, a parallel micro-economy. This is clearly a resource not often available to all disadvantaged groups, for example to indigenous white working-class neighbourhoods. But it has to be stressed that this resource comes at a price. Its presence may be a contributing factor in the young people's relative disengagement with the broader structure of labour market opportunities and can lead to them being trapped in the ethnic enclave.

"The young people are ambivalent about what it means to be British and reluctant to adopt that identity. Yet at the same time, most do not simply use a Turkish identity either. They usually choose multiple ethnic identities, but in the majority of cases, the term 'British' is not (yet) part of that plurality. This is complicated by the fact that the majority of Kurds refused to self-identify as Turks."

Blood and Property wrote a brief follow-up piece about the conviction of the leader of the Bombacilar gang 18 months ago - Turkish Gang Problem - it remains one of the most viewed Blood and Property stories each month due to Google searches for "Bombacilar Hackney".

2 comments:

This article should also have addressed the well-known fact that many local businesses are also fronts for laundering drug money.See this article http://www.viceland.com/int/v15n10/htdocs/ex-biggest-heroin-dealer-111.php

Many of the jewellery shops and kebab shops are distinctly dodgy and run by gangsters. It's no coincidence that "social clubs" (many now moved above kebab shops) often attract drug dealers' top of the line Range Rovers and BMW's.It is far too important to gloss over or omit the fact that the Green Lanes micro-economy is largely fueled by heroin money. The changing face of this area is also encouraging more crime as a nouveau riche demonstrates the material influence and rewards belonging to a mafia bring.